This just in from Heckovajob Brownie: Help for Sandy came too fast

[Askthepizzaguy]

Maybe Michael Brown is the resident expert on coming too quickly, but when it comes to disaster preparedness, he really needs to sit down and shut the bleep up.

I give you: The guy who completely sat on his hands during Katrina, criticizing current efforts to respond to Sandy.

Note carefully what his criticism actually is.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/264845-bushs-brownie-criticizes-obama-on-sandy

Michael Brown, former President George W. Bush's former FEMA director who was criticized for his slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said on Monday that President Obama may have acted too quickly on Hurricane Sandy this week.

Brown said Obama's Sunday press conference with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials was "premature" because the effect of the storm was not felt until a day later.

"It's premature [when] the brunt of the storm won't happen until later this afternoon," Brown said Monday, according to Denver Westward.

Brown said he was concerned about Obama's early remarks because people in the Northeast were "already beginning to blow it off." He added that Obama's comments on Sunday were leading New Yorkers to start "shrugging their shoulders" and ask "what's this all about?"

Brown, now a talk radio host in Colorado, said Obama was likely trying to get ahead of the storm politically.

"[He] doesn't want anybody to accuse him of not being on top of it or not paying attention or playing politics in the middle of it," Brown said. "He probably figured Sunday was a good day to do a press conference."

Brown added that the message Obama should have sent is one that says the administration will help FEMA with whatever it needs to handle the effect of the hurricane. Obama largely said that on Sunday, when he said the government needs to "respond big" to the storm and that he would not let the process of responding get "bogged down in a lot of rules."

Brown, famously dubbed "Brownie" by Bush, was harshly criticized by both Democrats and Republicans for the way FEMA handled Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That storm left New Orleans residents in a chaotic struggle to find food, clean water and shelter, and FEMA was widely seen as reacting too slowly to that event.

The Bush administration was also criticized for appointing Brown to lead FEMA when he had no disaster relief experience. Brown was relieved of his control over the Katrina response after just a few weeks.

Brown later criticized state-level officials and former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for failing to evacuate New Orleans quickly enough. Brown said cities in Mississippi and Alabama were evacuated on time, and added that his "biggest mistake" was not realizing that Louisiana was "dysfunctional."

Yup. Help for Sandy came too quickly for heck of a job Brownie.

Current FEMA director had this to say in response:

"Go chew on your own nutbag, nutbag."

This may not have been his exact quote. I probably shouldn't try to top him, because his response is the reason why Brown should never have been anywhere near FEMA, and why our current FEMA director kicks serious booty. Here's the real quote:

“It’s better to be fast than to be late,”

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/83105.html

• FEMA Director Craig Fugate. The reason why government works in the hands of competent people.
• Former FEMA Director Michael Brown. Yet another example of a Republican who can't govern and doesn't know when to shut the heck up.

 

[Tee Kay]

Political opponent does good: evil ploy to gain votes
Political opponent does not good enough: incompetence

You can't win.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Help can never come too quickly.

This kid's just being a whiner, also what tailless said.

 

[Askthepizzaguy]

I am morbidly curious.

Is there anyone, anywhere, at all, who agrees with Michael Brown here, or.... at any point in history?

Right-wing reflexive reactionary defense squad, I SUMMON THEE!!!

 

[azzaman333]

How is it even possible that help can come too quickly?

 

[Borachio]

Don't they have to make plans for any foreseeable disaster in any case? Like contingency planning?

But still I don't see how you can respond too quickly. That doesn't make sense. Does the guy just want to appear stupid?

 

[uppi]

How is it even possible that help can come too quickly?

If the damage projections are off and you commit resources before the whole extent of the damage is known, you might misallocate resources. So if you concentrate all your disaster relief to the area you think will be hit the worst, the storm takes a sudden turn and hits another area and your response is much slower because redeploying takes a lot of time, you would have acted too soon.

That would be a plausible scenario where the accusation if helping too quickly might be justified. But I see no indication that this is such a situation.

 

[LegionSteve]

Don't they have to make plans for any foreseeable disaster in any case? Like contingency planning?

But still I don't see how you can respond too quickly. That doesn't make sense. Does the guy just want to appear stupid?

He seems to be saying that it's Obama's fault that some people didn't evacute or prepare enough. Because when the authorities started warning people, they didn't take it seriously, because the world wasn't collapsing around their ears yet. Which he thinks is Obama's fault for acting too quickly.

Yes, it's amazing how stupid you can get when you have to blame Obama for everything, regardless of actual reality.

 

[kochman]

How is Michael Brown relevant today again?
Oh, because you needed another reason to bash the right.

Dude, you don't have to dig this deep... there's tons of material out there that is WAY more relevant and interesting than the opinion of a failure.

 

[Azale]

How is Michael Brown relevant today again?
Oh, because you needed another reason to bash the right.

Dude, you don't have to dig this deep... there's tons of material out there that is WAY more relevant and interesting than the opinion of a failure.

Seems to me like pizza guy was just bashing Michael Brown. There is a discussion that could be had about the role of the federal government in disaster relief, I guess, if we wanted to bash the right. I had the misfortune of hearing Glenn Beck claim that local and community relief can handle everything and the federal government is only a source of last resort. I assume he would sympathize with Michael Brown's point of view here.

Before you say Glenn Beck is irrelevant, he has millions of listeners. Him, Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity are about as relevant together as Father Coughlin was in the '30s.

 

[kochman]

I wouldn't say Beck is irrelevant.

Brown on the other hand... totally irrelevant for years.

 

[JohannaK]

Political opponent does good: evil ploy to gain votes
Political opponent does not good enough: incompetence

You can't win.

This. Is. Brilliant. Well, it's more of an assertion on the reality of the situation, but its the best thing one can say.

 

[Askthepizzaguy]

How is Michael Brown relevant today again?

Because he's the former director of FEMA and he's criticizing the current director of FEMA in a way that illustrates greatly the difference between his directorship and the current directorship.

Oh, because you needed another reason to bash the right.

The right does a fairly sound job bashing itself, and needed none of my help pwning themselves this time. It's a pretty fragile little house of cards.

Dude, you don't have to dig this deep... there's tons of material out there that is WAY more relevant and interesting than the opinion of a failure.

I'm glad you agree that the failures of the right are everywhere I could point. But today, the discussion is Michael Brown the failure criticizing the current FEMA director, who is a success, because when you're a total failure and you're on the right, you can apparently still get work as a talk radio host and idiots will listen to you.

I am morbidly curious to find out if anyone supports his viewpoint.

 

[Askthepizzaguy]

I also like how everyone in the Obama administration is fair game (and they are) but someone from the very previous administration is ancient history, unworthy of comparison, to highlight the differences in governance between the two parties.

Man, this politics game is hard. I keep forgetting that criticizing the most recent example of Republican executive power is verboten, but we can talk about Obama's college record or where he was born, and bash Jimmy Carter every five minutes as if he were at all relevant.


THANKS RIGHTIES. YOU DEMONSTRATE A TOTAL GRASP OF MATURITY AND FAIR PLAY EVERY TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTHS.

 

[Formaldehyde]

But still I don't see how you can respond too quickly. That doesn't make sense. Does the guy just want to appear stupid?

I think the numbers speak for themselves.

Minimum number dead from Katrina, largely due to the government not responding quickly enough: 1833.

 

[DirtyFinger]

I am morbidly curious.

Is there anyone, anywhere, at all, who agrees with Michael Brown here, or.... at any point in history?

Right-wing reflexive reactionary defense squad, I SUMMON THEE!!!

yes, there are Heckovajob fanboys. They are wracking their brains trying to figure out a sound reasoning. But since Brownie is basically indefensible, my guess is that they will attack the messenger or the spelling in order to win their argument.

 

[warpus]

He just doesn't want people to remember him in a bad light.

If every single disaster in the U.S. is handled with such incompetence as what Brown did during Katrina, then he won't stand out as such a failure.

 

[woody60707]

I am morbidly curious.

Is there anyone, anywhere, at all, who agrees with Michael Brown here, or.... at any point in history?

Right-wing reflexive reactionary defense squad, I SUMMON THEE!!!

Well he is right about one thing, Louisiana was dysfunctional.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Was Louisiana responsible for a clearly inadequate levee system? Or was the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Congress, and the taxpayers who didn't want to pay the necessary expenses to build a decent system for decades?

Was Louisiana also responsible for clearly inferior national disaster plans and funding? Or, again, it is really the fault of those who want an even more limited federal government?

 

[Borachio]

Er. No, no, no, and no.

Am I right?

Or is it, on second thoughts: no, yes, no, and yes?

(I love a quiz.)